Recently, I've started having weird, erratic problems with transfers from my 2 premiers using Tivo Desktop Plus. The file sizes on my PC do not match the sizes on the Tivos, and I am losing anywhere from 10%-50% of the shows. But, it doesn't happen on all shows, and there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it. I've tried direct transfers via kmttg, and via directly linking to the boxes with pretty much the same results.

The shows are complete when you watch them on TV, this is only a transfer issue.

It seems that there's something in the files that is causing the Tivo units to stop transferring (like an EOF) before they are really done. I've rebooted both boxes. I've transferred between boxes, then tried downloading them with the same results, so that tells me it is something in the recorded files.

This is usually caused by some sort of A/V glitch or file corruption in the program.

If you go to the point in the program on the Tivo where the file stops on the computer, do you see/hear any break up in the video/audio?

You can usually get around this limitation since you have two Premieres.
For a particular program, pause it just past where the file stopped on the computer and MRV it from the pause point to the other Tivo.
From there, you transfer that to your computer.
The rub is, that leaves you with two files on your computer that need to be merged with a third party video editor.
*cough* VideoReDo *cough*

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After reading around a bit, I've tried downloading the mpeg-ps files from the Tivos and have had much better success, though not 100%. I'm curious why all of a sudden this is happening to two different boxes.

Any number of things. Could be a glitch in the video (pixilation), a transmition error from the TV station/cable company, an error in the satellite transmition from the network to the TV station/cable company, etc.
No one really knows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozark

Is it possibly an issue with my incoming cable signal?

That would certainly be one thing that you can check.
Are the shows that are getting truncated consistantly come from the same channels or is it random?

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The shows being truncated are on different channels. It seems to happen more in the late afternoon/evening. IIRC, this happened before and it went away after a few days, making me think even more that its an issue with Comcast.

It seems to happen more in the late afternoon/evening. IIRC, this happened before and it went away after a few days, making me think even more that its an issue with Comcast.

I think you are on to something.

Does your cable access box reside outside, possibly on a wall that gets direct sunlight in the late afternoon/evening?
Or maybe it gets sunlight in the morning and shade in the afternoon?
Expansion and contraction can wreak havok on connections.

If not that, it still could be some other environmental issue causing problems with your cable signal.
Does your cable line come in from overhead, or is it buried underground?

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Does your cable access box reside outside, possibly on a wall that gets direct sunlight in the late afternoon/evening?

It is exceedingly unlikely this would be the case. Passive devices are highly immune to environmental conditions, with the exception of ice or water, if there is a leak in the housing or its connectors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve614

Or maybe it gets sunlight in the morning and shade in the afternoon?
Expansion and contraction can wreak havok on connections.

Not so much, really.

The most likely environmental culprit would be ambient temperature causing the cable loss of the trunk and feeder lines to vary. Older CATV systems had transmission paths that might have as much as 800dB of cable loss, and even a modest variation in temperature would require a significant action from the Automatic Gain and Tilt systems. If these are broken or improperly set up, a change in temperature could have a drastic effect on the S/N and distortion specs at the subscriber tap. These days, most cascades are limited to no more than 80dB or so, vastly reducing the effects of temperature, but it still can have a significant effect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve614

Does your cable line come in from overhead, or is it buried underground?

If by "cable line" you mean the subscriber drop, then it is not very likely to be the source of the issue, and especially not based on environmental conditions, in particular temperature.